The Heart Defects Society of Windsor and Essex County offers compassionate support within the community, provides educational, emotional and financial resources to improve the quality of life of individuals affected by Congenital Heart Defects.

The Heart Defects Society will aim toward being a high profile non-profit organization in Ontario.

Walk'n Roll walkathon was held on October 4, 2008!

This year, 135 people participated in the 5 km walk starting at Assumption Park, going to Dieppe Park and back.

We encouraged everyone who’s lives have been touched by heart defects to come out and help us raise awareness about the number one birth defect in the world. For more information about the Walk'n Roll 2008, including pictures, please click here.

Melissa Trothen Memorial Fund

Applications are being accepted for funding through the Melissa Trothen Memorial Fund. This fund is designed to financially assist families who must travel to London or Toronto for congenital cardiac medical care. For more information click here.

Heart Defects are the number one cause of illness related death in children, doubling the number of deaths from all childhood cancers, and yet, research for heart defects is less than half of that for all of childhood cancers combined.

Very little is known about the genes that cause CHDs. Many research efforts have attempted to pinpoint issues such as maternal illness’ and environmental exposure (air pollution, water, food chemicals) but nothing yet has been shown to increase the risk of CHD. Alcohol, drugs and smoking have more recently been looked at and may increase the risk of CHD.

What we do know is that babies that are born with congenital heart disease are living longer healthier lives due to the advancing medical treatments. There are currently 110,000 adults living with congenital heart disease in Canada.

The Heart Defects Society hopes to shed light on these startling facts, as well as bring families affected by CHDs together for support and understanding.

Please join us in our fight, by emailing us, and sharing your story.